Orchard and hothouse heater



Sept. 24, 1940. Q w. STEWART 2,215,670

ORCHARD AND HOTHOUSE HEATER Filed Aug. 28, 1937 I N VEN TOR.

m Car/es MJZWm/Z A TTORNEY.

Patented Sept. 24, 1940 UNITED STATES PAT ICE 4 Claims.

My invention relates to .a heater for heating orchards, hothouses, or the like, and the objects of my invention are,

First, to provide a heater to be used among the trees in an orchard or among the trees and shrubbery around a hothouse for heating the area around the trees or shrubs to keep them from becoming frosted when there are exceptionally cold short periods;

Second, to provide a heater of this class in which various fluids or gases may be burned and the heat distributed therefrom efi'iciently;

Third, to provide a heater of this class with means in connection therewith for vaporizing the fluid on its passage to the burner;

Fourth, to provide a heater of this class in which a body of refractory material is heated and, therefore, radiates the heat;

Fifth, to provide a novel fuel burner;

Sixth, to provide a heater of this class with means for taking care of the waste or sludge from the vaporizing of the fuel in its passage to the burner;

Seventh, to provide a new and novel orchard heater, and

Eighth, to provide an orchard heater of this type which is very simple and economical of construction, easy to operate, efiicient in its action, and which will not readily deteriorate or get out of order.

With these and other objects in view as will appear hereinafter, my invention consists of certain novel features of construction, combination, and arrangement of parts and portions as will be hereinafter described in detail and particularly set forth in the appended claims, reference being had to the accompanying drawing and to the characters of reference thereon which form a part of this application in which:

Figure 1 is a sectional view of my burner taken from the line l-l of Fig. 2 and showing some of the parts and portions in elevation to facilitate the illustration; Fig. 2 is a fragmentary top or plan view of the burner, and Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken from the line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

Similar characters of reference refer to similar parts and portions throughout the several views of the drawing.

The leg members I, 2, and 3, refractory material supporting pan 4, refractory material 5, burner cylinder 6, burner nozzle member 1, fuel distributing nozzle 8, cylinder head 9, plug l0, vaporizing tube II, and sludge outlet plug I2 constitute the principal parts and portions of my orchard and hothouse heater.

The leg members I, 2, and 3 are preferably made of strip metal and are provided with outward turns la and 2d at their lower ends. There are three of these leg members which form a tripod for supporting a burner cylinder 6. This burner cylinder 6 is provided on its outer surface near its upper end with straight lug portions to, 6b, and 60, shown best in Fig. 2 of the drawing, and secured to these lug portions are the upper ends of the leg members I, 2, and 3 by means of angular bend portions lb, shown best in Fig. 1 of the drawing. Secured to these leg members I, 2, and 3 at their inner sides and placed some distance from the lower ends of said leg members, is a refractory material supporting pan 4 which is provided with an upwardly turned edge Ga. and this edge is turned inwardly at the leg portion, as shown at ib, so that itassumes the angle of the leg members. This pan 1 is filled with a rounded heaped mass of crushed rock or other suitable refractory material which is adapted to receive the blaze from the burner and spread and distribute the same and the heat therefrom. It will be noted that the cylinder 6 is positioned in a vertical position and mounted in the lower end thereof is .a nozzle member 1 which is in the form of a spider with a central opening la and outer openings lb, see Fig. 3, providing for the proper distribution of the flames from the burner cylinder as shown by arrows in Fig. l of the drawing. This cylinder 6 is provided with an integral head portion 9 which extends upwardly above the cylinder and across the upper end, said cylinder being open at its upper end on opposite sides of the member 9 at 601 and lie to admit air to the upper end of the cylinder, which head portion is provided with a fuel conductor 9a therein and between this fuel conductor 9a and the upper end of the cylinder 6 is a nozzle member 8 which is screw threaded in a hole between the upper end of said cylinder and the conductor 9a. This nozzle member 8 is provided with a very small orifice Ba in its lower end which provides for the exit of the fuel and it will be noted this nozzle member extends slightly below the upper'end of the cylinder, and also extends upwardly into the conductor 9a some distance as shown best in Fig. 1 of the drawing. Positioned in the head 9, directly above the nozzle 8 is a plug Ill which serves to provide accessibility to the nozzle member 8 for cleaning the same. The cylinder head 9 is provided with an outwardly extending portion 912 which is provided with a bore in its extended end in which is mounted the upper end of the vaporizing tube II. It will be noted that this vaporizing tube H is positioned so that it receives the blaze and heat reflected from the burner by the refractory material on the pan 6, thus vaporizing the fuel on its way to the burner. This vaporizing tube H is positioned on an angle as shown, and is provided at one side with an outwardly extending fuel inlet conductor portion Ha which has a threaded portion i lc for connection with an inlet fuel conductor which may be any suitable conductor, not shown in the drawing. This tube extends downwardly from the inlet portion i la and the lower portion llc forms a trap for Waste or sludge caused by the vaporization of the fuel and there is provided means for cleaning this waste or sludge, which is a plug [2 which is in the lower end of the member He.

The operation of my heater is as follows:

The heaters are placed in the proper position on the ground under the trees in the orchard and are connected up with a fuel supply by means of the members I la and l lb in Fig. l of the drawing and it will be here noted that the burner is adapted to burn gases such as natural gas, butane gas, or liquid gases. The fuel is then forced through the distributing system, passes through the inlet Ila, through vaporizer H, through the passage in conductor So, then downwardly through the nozzle 8 and there mixing with air entering the upper end of the cylinder 6 and the mixture passes out through the spider-like burner nozzle I in the form of a blaze which strikes the refractory material 5 on the rounded upper side and is reflected outwardly, some of it striking the vaporizing tube H and vaporizing the fuel, the remainder passing outwardly into the tree foliage and thus heating the area surrounding the trees.

Though I have shown and described a particular construction, combination, and arrangement of parts and portions, I do not wish to be limited to this particular construction, combination, and arrangement, but desire to include in the scope of my invention the construction, combination, and arrangement substantially as set forth in the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In an orchard heater of the class described,

" the combination of a down draft burner including a hollow cylinder positioned on a vertical axis and provided with a spider-like nozzle at its lower end, a small fuel distributing nozzle positioned on a vertical axis centrally in the upper end and provided with air inlet openings on opposite sides of said nozzle, provided with an enclosed fuel inlet communicating with the upper end of said fuel distributing nozzle, a vaporizing tube communicating with said enclosed fuel inlet at its upper end and extending downwardly and provided with a fuel inlet at one side of said vaporizing tube, a sludge trap below said fuel inlet in integral connection with said vaporizing tube, and a plurality of leg members secured at their upper ends to said cylindrical burner member at its side walls and extending downwardly in angular position.

2. In an orchard heater of the class described, the combination of a down draft burner including a hollow cylinder positioned on a vertical axis and provided with a spider-like nozzle at its lower end, a small fuel distributing nozzle positioned on a vertical axis centrally in its upper end and provided with air inlet openings on opposite sides of said nozzle, provided with an enclosed fuel inlet communicating with the upper end of said fuel distributing nozzle, a vaporizing tube communicating with said enclosed fuel inlet at its upper end and extending downwardy and provided with a fuel inlet at one side of said vaporizing tube, a sludge trap below said fuel inlet in integral connection with said vaporizing tube, a plurality of leg members secured at their upper ends to said cylindrical burner member at its side walls and extending downwardly in angular position, and a pan supported below the spiderlike nozzle supported by said legs and an upwardly rounded heap of loose refractory material positioned on said pan.

3. In an orchard heater of the class described, a down draft burner including a one piece casing provided with a substantially long hollow vertical cylinder provided with a spider-like opening at its lower end, a fuel inlet distributing nozzle positioned centrally in its upper end, an enclosed fuel inlet conductor positioned substantially horizontal communicating with the upper end of said distributing nozzle, a plug positioned in said casing above said distributing nozzle, an inclined vaporizing tube connected with said casing in communication with said fuel inlet conductor and in substantially close proximity to the spidershaped open end of said burner casing whereby said vaporizing tube is preheated by said burner, and refractory material positioned in rounded relation below said spider-like opening in relatively close proximity thereto for causing the deflection of the blaze from said burner around said vaporizing tube.

4. In an orchard heater of the class described, a down draft burner including a one piece casing provided with a substantially long hollow vertical cylinder provided with a spider-like opening at its lower end, a fuel inlet distributing nozzle positioned centrally in its upper end, an enclosed fuel inlet conductor positioned substantially horizontal communicating with the upper end of said distributing nozzle, a plug positioned in said casing above said distributing nozzle, an inclined vaporizing tube connected with said casing in communication with said fuel inlet conductor and in substantially close proximity to the spidershaped open end of said burner casing whereby said vaporizing tube is preheated by said burner, refractory material positioned in rounded relation below said spider-like opening in relatively close proximity thereto for causing the deflection of the blaze from said burner around said vaporizing tube, and a sludge trap integral with said vaporizing tube at its lower end adjacent said refractory material.

CHARLES W. STEWART. 

